


Red as Blood

by Raven_Song



Series: Gotham Fairy Tales [3]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Hallucinations, Red Riding Hood Elements, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin (DCU), There are a lot of spiders, arachnophobes beware, seriously, sorry - Freeform, wolf imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 00:38:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17193200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Song/pseuds/Raven_Song
Summary: Jonathan Crane struggles to deal with his trauma, but finds that a hood helps erase his fear. Little Red Riding Hood inspired.





	Red as Blood

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun with this one! If you're afraid of spiders, this might not be the fic for you. There are a lot of spiders (they're all a hallucination) so be warned.
> 
> My next addition to this series is going to be a multi-chapter Bluebeard inspired fic. Can you guess which character it'll be about?
> 
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated.

The boy shuffled down the sidewalk, eyes darting frantically to scan each passerby. Nervous fingers plucked at the fraying threads of his brown jacket. It was his armor: a ragged shield meant to protect him. The world around him was a wilderness of concrete and glass, not the forests of his childhood. The woods were sanctuary; the city was the wilderness.

Glass shattered off to his right. Jonathan jumped a little, a fearful whine escaping from between his teeth. The business woman walking past him shot him a look. Her eyes were burning red, the color glowing from deep within her skull. 

Jonathan’s panicked thoughts took over. _Avoid the wolves. Look at the ground. _He counted his steps, watching his feet fly over the pavement. Keeping his head down, he lifted up his hood to hide his face. _Don’t let the wolves see you. _Jonathan ran into something, stumbling as he lost his balance.____

____“Watch where you’re going, freak,” the man sneered. His teeth were sharp like a wolf’s, gnashing and dripping with saliva that ran over curled lips. His eyes were cold and cruel, glowing red like hot coals. It took all of Jonathan’s effort to bite the scream that was building in his throat._ _ _ _

____“S-sorry. I’m sorry,” Jonathan held up his hands, retreating into his hood. _Hide your face. It’s a monster._ The man scowled and hovered in indecision. He turned away. Apparently whatever he had been doing was more important than this skinny annoyance. ___ _

______Jonathan spun around and doubled his pace. The hood was his only protection from the phantasms his mind conjured up. It worked like blinders, cutting away his peripheral vision so he could focus on the path ahead._ _ _ _ _ _

______Someone else bumped him, their angry grumbling warped by his fear into deep growls. Jonathan’s heart began to race, thundering in his ears. He couldn’t make the wolves angry. He didn’t want to get torn apart. He had to hide. Where could he hide? Jonathan whirled around in his frantic search to find an alley to hide in, finally settling on one and sprinting into its darkness._ _ _ _ _ _

______ _ _ _ _

______The young clerk stared into the shadows with dread. A large shape shambled out, accompanied by raspy breathing. His heart pounded like drums in his ears. Fingers reached behind him as he ran into the counter, sending bottles of pills crashing to the floor in a horrible cacophony._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Don’t be afraid, little wolf,” the shadow told him. “Fear is poison.” The clerk looked around for an out. Surely if he gave the shadowed man something he could survive this robbery?_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Please! I won’t tell anyone you came here. Take what you want.” The young man gestured to the drawers full of all of the medication his pharmacy stocked. It was worth hundreds on the black market._ _ _ _ _ _

______The shadow cocked its head as it advanced. Oh god, there were _tubes_ attached to its mouth. The clerk slid to the floor, cowering away from the monstrous figure in front of him. He knew who this was. Stories had spread like wildfire of the maniac who wore a hood and carried a scythe like he was some sort of fear reaper.___ _ _ _

________“I don’t need your drugs,” the monster laughed. “I want to help you. You’re all imprisoned by fear. Look, you’re afraid of me!” The clerk whimpered a confirmation. “I was once like you: paralyzed by fear. But look at me now! I’m free of it. You can be like me, little wolf. I can help emancipate you from your fear.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Scarecrow leaned down to meet the clerk’s eye. His blue eyes stared, unblinking, from inside his mask. Beautiful eyes, or at least they would be if they weren’t surrounded by that awful burlap. The mouth of the mask was barely there- held in place by loose stitches that revealed flashes of white teeth._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The clerk was so entranced by his fascination with the monster in front of him that he didn’t hear what the Scarecrow said to him until after._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Do you know why I wear a mask?” The clerk shook his head. “My father was a scientist. He wanted to cure me of fear, but it didn’t work out how he had planned. I wasn’t cured of fear: I was drowning in it. It was everywhere I looked. All I saw were the monsters. The only thing that helped me was a hood. My hood hid the shadows from me- blinded me to the horrors that waited for me to see them. But then I realized that the monsters weren’t there to terrorize me, they were trying to speak to me. To tell me I had to become my fear to overcome it.” Scarecrow loomed closer, his gaze pinning the frightened young man in place. Did the monster even blink?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I don’t want to face my fear,” the clerk whispered. The image of a dark shape scuttled across his mind’s eye, legs splayed out as it ran for him. He couldn’t overcome that horror. Not today.  
Scarecrow rasped a laugh again, sending shivers down the clerk’s spine._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Hush, little wolf. You’re only afraid because you don’t know what it is to be free. I’ll show you what you can do when you aren’t chained. It will be magnificent. You’ll see. There’s no need to be afraid of what lurks in the woods anymore.” Scarecrow lifted his hand, leveling it with the young man’s face. A glass vial was affixed to his glove, containing a yellow liquid. The famous fear toxin.  
“Wait-” the clerk gagged on the substance as it sprayed in his face. As he gasped for air and attempted to wipe the spray off of his cheeks, he heard drums pounding in his ears. Why were there drums? He looked up to Scarecrow with the question on his lips. He screamed._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________There were dozens of spiders crawling from the rip of a mouth in Scarecrow’s mask, now glowing red like hellfire. His chin was obscured by writhing legs and fat little bodies squirming to ride the swarm. The clerk tried to scramble away from them, but it was no use. They just kept coming. Their bodies made thuds as they fell to the ground, crawling towards the terrified man._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Get them off of me!” The man was sobbing now, scraping the critters off of his legs, but it was pointless. There were too many of them. The spiders swarmed up his body, still pouring out of the burlap mask._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Embrace your fear, little wolf,” the Scarecrow crooned. Spiders jostled out of place with every word he spoke. “You will come out of the woods stronger than when you went in. I wonder just how strong you’ll be…”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The clerk screamed himself hoarse, resorting to whines and sobs as his voice was torn to shreds. Scarecrow’s eyes glowed crimson as the terror took its hold. There was no escape from this horrifying landscape in the young man’s mind. He was in the toxin’s thrall, choking on the writhing mass of scuttling legs crawling into his mouth and his ears. He retched as his body rejected the intruders, but nothing could save him from the swarm._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Scarecrow stroked the young man’s hair, watching his face contort with his imagined horrors. What had the toxin concocted, Jonathan wondered. His only regret with his serum was that he couldn’t see what fears he inflicted his victims with, but there was only so much science could achieve._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The clerk had passed out, presumably from the acute panic. Too bad, really. Jonathan was looking forward to seeing his rebirth. But there was no rest for the wicked, and the Scarecrow had other stops to make tonight. He rustled through the drawers until he found the right bottles, tucking them into the grab bag sewn onto his side._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Sweet nightmares, little wolf,” he told the unconscious clerk. “I’ll see you again soon.” Whistling a skeletal lullaby, Scarecrow slipped out the back door and into the unlit alley. The monsters on the fringes of his vision were haloed in red, eyes empty pits as they stared at him._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Jonathan Crane wasn’t the fearful boy he had once been. He had weathered his forest, fighting tooth and nail to make it out alive. And the thing that emerged was cloaked in the skins of the wolves who had hunted him during those years of terror._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________He hefted his scythe over his shoulder, still whistling the horrifying tune. There was work to be done. His fear toxin wasn’t going to make itself, and he had a few more ingredients to gather. He passed under the awning of a drug den, rousing the girl on watch._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________He was bathed in the light, and in her drugged haze she thought his burlap mask and suit were dripping red with blood. Scarecrow lifted a finger to his lips, and the girl nodded mutely. As he turned and disappeared into the night, she could have sworn she heard a whisper of a lullaby._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
